February 2019 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on February 11th, 2019:

Asset	Jan 2019	Feb 2019	Change
Checking	286	1,683	1,397
Money Market	68,295	56,792	-11,503
Savings Bonds	145,552	155,850	10,298
Treasury Bills	10,000	10,000	0
CDs	57,626	57,810	184
Brokerage	157,016	172,428	15,412
401k	168,106	175,947	7,841
Roth IRA	144,659	149,333	4,674
SEP IRA	717,085	749,409	32,324
529 Savings	170,838	173,596	2,758
Total Assets	$1,639,463	$1,702,848	$63,385
			3.87%

The market has recovered a bit since the last update, with the S&P 500 falling 4.36% during that time:

(chart courtesy of nasdaq.com)

On the jobs front, the unemployment rate for January rose to 4.0%, with a strong 304,000 new jobs created. Oil prices have stayed relatively flat at the $53 level, which has translated locally to unleaded regular gasoline prices in the neighborhood of $2.25 per gallon. Despite the apparent strength of the economy, auto loan delinquencies are at their highest level in nearly seven years. That certainly seems surprising considering the low unemployment rate for the past 3+ years.

On the financial front, I continued to roll my maturing 28 day T-Bills into new ones with an investment rate of 2.428%. As mentioned last month, I also bought the max allotment of January 2019 issue I Bonds with the current 0.5% fixed interest rate. Finally, I took an initial equity distribution from my S Corp and stashed the cash in Vanguard's Prime Money Market Fund (VMMXX) until I make my 2018 Roth IRA contribution before my individual tax returns are due in April.

As for the non-financial, my 2018 business tax returns are complete and I have most of the documents on hand for my 2018 personal returns. I have to admit that I'm curious to see how the tax "reform" package will impact my effective tax rate. Will the $10k limit on SALT deductions hurt more than the 20% deduction on business income helps? I'll find out soon enough.